The Mark Of A Writer

I regard myself as a writer, if only in the sense that one is a baker after making a cake at home. I think I'm a writer because of more than that, though. I think I may be a true writer by calling, although that is not all that I devote myself to in my professional endeavors. When doing those other things, I find myself wondering if I'm not more writer than performer, though there is great reward in performing what I've written.

How is one to know? I think there must be signs. They must have been easier to detect once upon a time. These days, one is more a typist than a writer. I write seriously only on my computer, although I do take notes by hand. That's when I see something that must have been on writers all the time once. They used to write everything by hand. The first to use a typewriter is said to have been Mark Twain, who turned to it relatively late in his career (although early in the period during which he was known).

Prior to that, it was by hand, and you could tell. Now, my handwriting is awful. If I really make the effort, others can read it, but it mostly takes too much time for me. One difficulty I have is how my hand drags across the page as I write from left to right. This is no problem for the first line on a page, but every page after that is at risk of being smudged. Consequently, it's all over the far edge of my right hand. When I'm writing in pen, there's no mistaking my activities.

Even when using a pencil (which I like), it's there. What is there when one types- cramps? No one can see that. They see at best that your hand is contorted, which is gratifying aesthetically but impractical given that it impairs the hand's actual function. It's better, I feel, to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the great ink-stained wretches of tradition. Maybe I'm a romantic, but have that blue and black badge of courage on my hand makes me feel close to those great American authors of old.